Samson

As my study guides point out, Samson is a familiar figure to us from popular culture, and, sure enough, I know something about him because of a song,  "If I Had My Way," on a Peter, Paul and Mary album.  The song, also titled "Samson and Delilah," was written by a blind Baptist minister and guitar player, Rev. Gary Davis, one of those blues and gospel "originals" who enjoyed a rediscovery during the folk music craze of the 60s.    The version of the song that I know is all rhythm and harmonizing and communicates some of the intensity of Samson's story.  Naturally, the account in the Bible is quite a bit more  raw and arresting than the song.

Like Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, Samson's mother is barren and Samson's birth is special, overseen by the intervention of an angel who instructs Samson's mother not to cut the boy's hair, that he will be a Nazirite (see Numbers 6, 1-21).   Again we have a prefiguring of the angel's visit to Mary and Jesus' birth as well as a reminder that each new life is known to God and is part of his plan.

Samson has his share of adventures with women and riddles.  He first marries a Philistine woman whom he rather unceremoniously dumps when she discloses to her people the answer to the riddle that Samson poses.  Later, the pattern is repeated with Delilah.  Both women are portrayed as coquettish vixens playing on Samson's emotions by telling him that if he really loved them, he'd tell his secret.  (Everything old is new again!) 


I understand that Samson's herculean strength and his defeat of the Philistines comes from God, but Samson himself never acknowledges that until the very end of his life, Ch. 16,  v.28.  Furthermore, Samson seems indifferent where the Lord is concerned.  When he reveals his secret to Delilah, it's not clear whether he really believes his strength comes from God --that is from his hair as a result of  his consecration to God from birth---or whether he regards the Nazirite vow as empty and takes his overpowering strength for granted.   In contrast to Moses or Joshua or to another of the judges, Deborah, Samson is a bit of a brute.  In the Garrison study guide, the author asks, "Do you find it difficult to focus your reading so that you rise above the sordid in Samson's brief biography?"  Answer, yes.

Judges

Book Written:  material gathered during reign of King David; edited in 7th-6th centuries

Time Period/Setting:   200 years, 1200-1000 B.C.,  during which Israel had no centralized authority or king

Title:   Judges or military-theocratic leaders ruled over the different tribes; word 'judge' is mentioned only once in book; not necessarily charismatic leaders 

Judges contains the line, " In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did as he pleased,"  a line which pretty well describes our modern culture of moral relativism where moral standards are determined not by God's truth but by  "what's right for me."    Of the twelve judges described in the book, four are said to be major, and, of those, two in particular interested me--Deborah and Samson.

So,  here we have Deborah, a woman whose name in Hebrew means 'bee,'  sitting under a palm tree giving orders. What an image.  It has to be only a matter of highly unusual coincidence that Barak is the name of the  military leader that Deborah summons to fight  King Jabin's army led by Sisera.  It must again be coincidence of the highest order that Barak is a  ditherer.  My study Bible uses the words 'reluctant' and 'hesitant'  to describe our president  the man.  It's no surprise that Barak doesn't want to follow Deborah's instructions unless she goes with him.   Barak does screw up the pep to take 10,000 troops against Sisera (maybe those are the 10,000 he's planning to call back from Afghanistan in July?) and he even has the guts to pursue Sisera's chariots.   A woman, Jael, finishes the job for Barak by luring Sisera into her tent and then killing him.  

The literary subtleties of the Song of Deborah, Ch. 5, elude me but there are some beautiful verses that capture the drama of Deborah's victory.  Jael killing Sisera with a tent peg is as follows:

She put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet;

she struck Sisera a blow,

she crushed his head,

she shattered and pierced his temple.

He sank, he fell, he lay still at her feet; at her feet he sank, he fell;where he sank, there he fell dead.